They even cadged some spare robot suits from an episode of "Out of the Unknown" and painted parts of them yellow! (There are colour photo's) Sometimes, some of the most inventive works are done under duress!

alanultron5 wrote:They even cadged some spare robot suits from an episode of "Out of the Unknown" and painted parts of them yellow! (There are colour photo's) Sometimes, some of the most inventive works are done under duress!

I think that was always one of the Who team's strong points. Can't use the studio because of an asbestos scare? Hey, no problem; we've a story set in a circus, let's just shoot it in a tent in the BBC car park!

Welsh, is it? And how will the assembled forces of evil be able to take him seriously with an accent like that? And how will the TARDIS even be able to ferry him about when all of its power is being diverted into the telepathic translation circuits just to keep up with the job of making him understandable to his companions and the viewers? Away with you, blodwyn. You're well meaning isn't it, but still away with the fairies.

The two best Doctors are northerners...we don't f*ck about up 'ere, tha' knows, lad! (I don't speak like that, but people "darn sarf" think we do - so we amuse them...they also think it's all like Coronation Street while we think it's all like Eastenders...which it is).

GBF wrote:The two best Doctors are northerners...we don't f*ck about up 'ere, tha' knows, lad! (I don't speak like that, but people "darn sarf" think we do - so we amuse them...they also think it's all like Coronation Street while we think it's all like Eastenders...which it is).

The two best Doctors? Well, Tom Baker is certainly one, but who's the other?

As far as the others go: Percy James Patrick Kent-Smith (Sylvester McCoy) is from Dunoon, Scotland and David John McDonald (David Tennant) from Bathgate, West Lothian. Peter Moffett (Peter Davison), John Devon Roland 'Jon' Pertwee and Colin Baker were all Londoners, William Hartnell was from Kent and Patrick Troughton from Middlesex. Matt Smith is from Northampton, home town of Alan Moore.

tony ingram wrote:Nonetheless, he's still technically a Scouser. And you are buying into an unfair regional stereotype, there. Not all northerners are shiftless neer-do-wells who go around nicking hubcaps.

Re necessity. When the "Prisoner" was in production; the machine they built to be the villiage `guardian` (Rover) a sort of hovercraft like device, just kept breaking down! Looking skyward in despair, someone noticed a weather baloon which had broken free and was drifting actross Portmerion- hey presto! A new guardian, far more effective on screen, and much less costly too!

There are some stories it takes you a while to get a handle on, that you're not sure what you think of them initially. Some (Sun Makers, Silence in the Library, The Big Bang) turn out eventually to be real favourites. Some (hello, Morbius) you eventually realise you actually actively dislike.

Kinda, unfortunately, is definitely among the latter group. What's it all about? I've no idea. There are two major plots (Hindle-is-a-loony and the Mara), neither of which are connected to each other or even affect each other in any way, and could have come from 2 different stories. The Hindle plot also gets massively irritating after a while, and has a nonsensical resolution (if the magic Kinda box can restore both his and Sanders' sanity, why does it send Sanders barking in the first place?), while the Mara plot is much better done in Snakedance - Janet Fielding's much vaunted turn as the possessed Tegan lasting for all of - uh - one scene here. There are also some plot points that are just plain nonsense - why does the old woman keep giving the box to the men from the dome when she explicity states men can't open it without going nuts? Is she evil, sadistic or just deeply stupid? And I'm all for a bit of weirdness and surrealism, but Kinda just piles on random weirdness on top of random weirdness with no real point or purpose. The new CGI snake is genuinely impressive, but by that point I was past caring. A DWM reviewer once noted of Kinda that "It's not clever - it just tells you it's writer has read books by people who are". I think that probably sums it up.

The sequel, Snakedance, is vastly superior - a taut, menacing, smart supernatural thriller that is probably one of the best Davison stories. Kinda, IMHO, is one of the worst.

You've genuinely surprised me, Cody. Simon Rouse's performance as Hindle has always seemed to me to be one of classic Who's best! OK, admittedly it has no real connection to the Mara plotline, but that just adds another layer to the story, I think. As for Sanders: my reading of it was that the box works by effectively reversing the state of mind of the viewer. So, Hindle's sanity was restored because he was totally off his trolley, but sanders ended up as the gentle, diffident and childlike character he did because it was the opposite of the bluff old cove he normally was.

codywillis1 wrote:the land of pretending to be clever while really not being, I reckon - I hope it never goes there again.

I've no wish to see the show return to the remit of S20-24 either But I do like S19, especially Kinda.

I've just watched The Eleventh Hour again as a kind of taster for the return of the series next week. I have to say it was even more impressive than I remember on first viewing, and I thought it pretty impressive then. Although the series lost its footing a little bit with the next two episodes, (before picking up again with the Angels two parter), I think this is the best debut story for any Doctor since Spearhead.

Everybody plays their part to perfection, Smith makes a stunning debut, and the scripting is fantastic. The little flashbacks of the previous Doc's before 11 declares himself could have so easily backfired, so many iconic figures to live up to, but the combination of script and performance beforehand leaves the viewer with very little choice in the matter, you accept this newcomer straight away, and I remember thinking something along the lines of 'You? New boy! The Doctor?, well...actually...yes, you are!' I applaud both Smith and Moffat for pulling this off so quickly. People quickly forget the popularity of '10' and how he had made the part his own in the consciousness of the general viewing public.

The icing on the cake for me is the excellent Murray Gold score. I love the dramatic build thats conveyed effortlessly as the camera sweeps Amy's bedroom past the relics of her childhood, until the final reveal of the wedding dress. Good scripting, good camera work, even nice lighting, but its the music that makes this final scene work for me.